CJ IHC Athar Minallah dismisses Captain (retd) Safdar’s contempt petition against Aitzaz Ahsan

ISLAMABAD, Oct 18 (SABAH): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday dismissed a contempt petition filed against PPP leader Barrister Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar and said the remarks by Aitzaz were “unimportant”.

Captain (retd) Safdar had filed a petition against former PPP senator Aitzaz after he alleged that the establishment manipulated the acquittal of the Sharif family in the cases of corruption against them. Safdar, in his petition, had requested the IHC to initiate contempt proceedings.

At the outset of the hearing, the petitioner informed the IHC about the controversial statement, to which IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah asked if the petitioner had confidence in the court and if he believed others could influence it.

The counsel for captain (retd) Safdar replied that they had full confidence in the court.

Justice Athar Minallah asked why were they “unnecessarily” giving importance to such statements. He added that remarks such as Aitzaz’s were made daily and that a lot was said regularly on vlogs.

“There are also cases of misreporting. People are doing whatever they want, however, the solution is not contempt of court,” he furthered.

Captain (retd) Safdar told the court that Aitzaz, who has been a lawyer for 40 years, had claimed that the establishment had freed the Sharif family from the corruption cases against them. Safdar maintained that in the future, opponents of the PML-N would use this clip to allege that someone was involved in the acquittal of the Sharif family.

Justice Minallah responded that no one could influence the high court if they could not do so in 2018. The petitioner maintained that the court had given judgments against the “pharaohs of time” and had given the Sharif family, including Safdar himself, bail.

“Talal Chaudhary, Daniyal Aziz and Nehal Hashmi were summoned for contempt of court, why is Aitzaz not being summoned?” inquired the petitioner.

The court directed Safdar to not get involved in unimportant matters and maintained that it would not ask anyone for unnecessary clarifications. It held that in this case, the court would issue an order and deal with the matter. Later, the IHC disposed of the contempt petition against the PPP leader.